


Just a Game

by waltzofanomalies



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, background keith / oc, background shiro / allura - Freeform, oc is in there for angst idk, they play overwatch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-29
Updated: 2018-11-29
Packaged: 2019-09-02 10:32:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16785202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waltzofanomalies/pseuds/waltzofanomalies
Summary: College AU where the gang meets through Overwatch.





	Just a Game

**Author's Note:**

> i started writing this pre-doomfist and found it and finished it off so yeah....
> 
> not all of this will be Overwatch based... i just wanted to indulge myself the first section. i’ll probably be indulging myself in following sections too though lol
> 
> also i wrote this before i finished s5 and i shallura'd i'm sorry

**10:20am**

**sharpshooter** : hey!!!!!

 **sharpshooter** : hunkkkkk

 **sharpshooter** : hunk

**11:13am**

**chococHunk:** sorry I just got up

 **chococHunk:** also wait

 **chococHunk:** why are you up so early it’s break

 **sharpshooter:** finally!! good morning

 **sharpshooter:** my siblings were loud and woke me up and now they're all out at school

 **sharpshooter:** so i've just been chilling in the practice range

 **sharpshooter** : play overwatch

 **chococHunk:** okay, okay, give me a minute

 **chococHunk** : I need to wash my face and make breakfast

 **sharpshooter:** and eat breakfast

 **chococHunk:** you know it

Lance tabs back into his bot game, satisfied that he has gotten his friend to play with him. Since he came back on a Friday, for the first couple days of break he had not even thought about video games, much less played them. His large family kept him busy, and his days were filled with taking care of his little siblings and constant chatter. Now, on a Monday, they were all at either work or school, leaving Lance alone to practice headshots. He gets in a few more before the purple text pops up in his in-game chat.

 **chococHunk** : okay

 **chococHunk** : discord?

 **sharpshooter** : oh yeah sec

After leaving the custom game, Lance alt-tabs out of Overwatch and pulls up the Discord app. He’s surprised to see Pidge is already in the buddi3s channel. They created it to play Don’t Starve Together, but nowadays only Pidge still plays Don’t Starve. Lance wonders if Pidge had slept at all that night, given that they were usually not awake around this time unless they had a class they loved. Maybe because it was break.

“Hellooo,” Lance says.

“Good morning, Lance.”

“Did you miss meeee?”

A little beep indicates that Hunk had entered the channel just as Pidge replies curtly, “No.”

“Are we fighting so early in the morning already?” Hunk’s voice is slightly muffled, Pidge and Lance could both tell he was still eating.

“It’s almost 12, Hunk - ” Pidge points out.

Hunk’s voice cuts Pidge short: “Wait, are you telling me you woke up and had breakfast already? We were up until 5am last night talking about solar eclipses.”

“No, I didn’t wake up because I didn’t sleep.” Pidge does sound tired. Hunk whistles.

“Well,” Lance starts. “Do you want to play Overwatch with us? I just wanted to play some arcade, something chill. We can do 3v3 elimination if you’re up for it.”

After a good two or three hours of 3v3, Pidge heads off to sleep. The three of them had gotten all their arcade loot boxes, losing only a few games. Lance really enjoyed playing with them. Because they had been playing games together since early high school, the three of them tended to work well together. By a stroke of luck, the three also ended up at the same college, and even though Pidge was a year younger than him and Hunk, they hung out often in school and through games during breaks. They also fell comfortably into roles while playing Overwatch. True to his screen name, Lance liked playing DPS but was willing to heal when they needed a support. Hunk enjoyed tanking or playing Mercy exclusively as a healer. And Pidge – well Pidge preferred support, but they were also really good at DPS.

Lance and Hunk take a synchronized bathroom and lunch break, and Lance returns back to the computer first. Hunk is still munching when he returns.

“Wanna do some rounds of competitive?” Lance asks. Hunk agrees, but they play a few rounds of quick play and mess around a bit before entering competitive games. Playing ranked right after eating guarantees an upset stomach. Hunk might even vomit. It happened once.

The first game they get thrown in, they lose spectacularly with Lance being the only healer as Ana, and Hunk being the only tank as Zarya. Lance complains the entire time they’re in queue afterwards.

“Dude, I had _silver_ damage. _Silver_ damage as Ana!” Hunk laughs. Lance is still amazed by Hunk’s tolerance level, and his ability to not complain or perhaps not find anything complain-worthy while playing video games. “And you,” Lance continues, “did an amazing job with that ult and called it really well and literally _nobody_ followed up on it. I mean that Genji tried to ult and died as soon as your shield on him ran out. Like what was that? I bet you had gold damage. You had gold –“

“Lance, we’re in game,” Hunks interjects.

“Oh, whoops, thanks.” This game already seems to be going better when the two solo queue-rs chose healer without being asked. Lance joins all voice chat and sees the five other players were ready in there.

“Hey, everybody.” A strong, sort of deep, and definitely beautiful voice kicks off all chat. “How’s it going?” Lance catches the icon this time. It’s their Reinhardt speaking.

Hunk replies first. He’s playing Zarya again. “Pretty good, Silver. Hey, isn’t that funny? You’re in plat, but your screen name is Silver.” Their Reinhardt laughs.

“Yeah I get that a lot. Maybe someday I’ll drop to silver and it’ll work out.” Lance really appreciates that voice. In fact, he’s so distracted that he didn’t even select his character yet, and their about 15 seconds into setup.

“Hey sharpshooter, you okay with DPS?” the Reinhardt asks. “I can fill.”

A slightly muffled voice answers. “I mean his name is… sharpshooter…” It’s the guy the Reinhardt is in duo queue with – the Genji who had yet to finish his placements. His screen name is Keith.

“Oh, uh yeah. DPS is fine,” Lance replies. He selects into Soldier and starts to shoot the arcade machines in set-up.

“Sorry man, I was hella distracted by your voice. Like how do you do that? Every time I hear you speak I’m compelled to call you Daddy or something.” That gets a laugh out of Silver and a sigh from someone else.

“Please no.” Its Keith’s muffled mic again. Lance shrugs and continues shooting arcade machines, throwing in a punch here there. Although the two healers aren’t talking (which is a bit of a shame), 4 out of 6 isn’t too bad. And Silver seems cool. He’s looking forward to this game.

Sure enough, when it starts they take the first checkpoint in 3 minutes. Their Reinhardt not only has a beautiful voice, but he’s great at diffusing tension and making good calls. Lance grudgingly admits that their Genji is also pretty good. He’s vying with someone for gold damage and eliminations, and he’s guessing it’s Keith.

In the end, they stomp the other team, 2-0. Lance sends Silver a friend request as soon as the Victory screen shows up. Keith’s got the play of the game with a nano-boosted Genji ult, but a quick tab confirms that Lance has gold in damage, and he gets a card for it. He’s disappointed to see he has silver eliminations though. After mulling it over a bit, Lance sends Keith a friend request as well before leaving the game as a group with Hunk.

“That was so fun!” Hunk says. Lance can hear Hunk’s fingers tapping on the desk, probably from left over adrenaline. “I so want to do that again. Did you friend req them?”

“Yeah,” Lance replies just as the notification that ‘Silver is online’ followed ‘Keith is online’ pops up. He gets a chat from Silver.

**4:35pm**

**Silver:** you guys want to group up?

 _Hell yeah_ they want to group up, Lance thinks.

“You get the invite chat from that Silver guy?” Hunk asks.

“Yeah, you up for it?”

“Hell yeah.” After confirming with Silver, Lance gets a group invite. Hunk joins shortly after, and immediately begins spreading loads of positive Hunk vibes.

“That was amazing! There were so many times where I was just unsure what to do, and going by your calls really helped a lot! Also, it’s awesome you could keep track of flankers like that.”

Hunk’s voice echoes through the Discord channel and Overwatch’s in game chat.

“Hunk, chill for a moment,” Lance says. His voice echoes for Hunk.

“Oh! I forgot,” Hunk says.

**4:38pm**

**chocoHunk:** should we just stick to in-game voice chat?

 **sharpshooter:** sounds good

“What was that?” Keith’s voice sounds even more muffled. Lance can hear him shifting his mic around.

“We were also in chat on Discord,” Lance explains. “Hey, you wouldn’t mind me asking how many elims you had that last game would you?” More shuffling.

“Uuuh, I dunno? 50ish?” Keith replies. Lance swears softly under his breath. He had 43. “What? Did I beat you on that?” Lance detects a bit of smugness in Keith’s voice and chooses to ignore him. Luckily, albeit a bit awkwardly, Silver steps in.

“So, your actual name is Hunk?” he asks. They were back in queue and waiting.

“Huh? Oh yeah, I’m Hunk,” Hunk replies. “Lance came up with my handle. Sorry, uh, sharpshooter.”

“Hunk,” Lance says fake-dramatically. “How could you betray me like this? How will my screen name catch on if you go around telling every single one my given name?”

“Maybe if you can get gold elims,” Keith muttered. His mic was back in the original less muffled spot.

“Gold damage is where it’s at,” Lance shoots back.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Lance,” Silver says, ignoring the side exchange between Keith and Lance. “I’m Shiro, and that’s Keith.”

“Wait,” Lance says incredulously. “Keith’s screen name is his real name?”

“Not everyone chooses to be gaudy and name themselves ‘sharpshooter’,” Keith replies.

“Hunk, back me up on this!”

“I mean, you suggested chococHunk for me, and that has Hunk in it…”

“That’s different,” Lance protests. “No one can really tell your real name is Hunk from that.”

“Yeah, and you didn’t think Keith was my real name,” Keith pointed out.

“But – “ Lance is cut off by the game screen as they enter Numbani. As the game loads, Lance repositions his fingers on the WASD keys and adjusts his headset. All four of them switch to all chat.

Shiro’s speaks first again. “Looks like it’s just us four in all chat.”

\---

Keith removes his earphones and rubs his eyes. Playing video games is fun, but he feels like shit afterwards. He puts his head between his knees. It was pretty bad when he started playing video games at first - a year ago, he couldn’t even play Team Fortress 2 for thirty minutes without getting nauseous. Now, he had played Overwatch for about three hours and the feeling was already beginning to fade after five minutes of staring at the ground. Shiro adjusting the game’s FOV also helped. Keith stares at the ground for another minute or two before he looks back at his laptop. Lance had messaged him.

**7:32pm**

**sharpshooter:** guess who got gold elims that game!!!

 **sharpshooter:** i’ll give u a hint… not keith…

**7:35pm**

**sharpshooter:** it was me :)))

**7:38pm**

**Keith:** good job

 **Keith:** :)

Keith closes the Blizzard client and shuts off his laptop. The whirring of the external fan Shiro gave him stops when his laptop turns off, and he can hear Shiro laughing from his room of the tiny 300 square-feet apartment.

“Keith, come here!” Shiro calls. Keith crosses the living room (and by living room, he means the social space, the kitchen, the dining area, and where Keith was currently crashing) to Shiro’s room. Shiro looks up when Keith enters and pushes his headphones back, revealing one ear. The curtains in Shiro’s room are still open, so Keith walks over and draws them.

“Thanks bro,” Shiro says. Keith glances at Shiro’s monitor.

“In queue again?” Keith says more than asks. Shiro was muted in the Overwatch group chat.

“Yeahhhh, it’s really fun playing with them,” Shiro says. “But nevermind that! Your response to Lance has him going right now - I swear the boy really admires you. Pidge is also pretty impressed.” Keith shrugs. He hadn’t been playing games on the PC for long, but he played a lot of console games as a kid. He knows his aim and game sense are pretty good.

“But anyways, Lance is griping right now about how your answer was so vague and how rude of it is just to leave like that without saying anything.”

“Well, I do have to make us dinner...” Keith reminds Shiro.

“Yeah, I told him th-”

“and if I don’t, you’ll eat nothing but pasta,” Keith finishes. Shiro pretends to look affronted.

“and ramen,” he replies.

“Well I leave in two days for school, and Allura won’t be coming back until your college break ends, so good luck with your noodles in that time” Keith says. “Also, you’re in game.”

“Oh yeah, thanks!” Shiro says as Keith leaves his room. “Hey, whatsup everyone?”

When Keith gets to the kitchen, he considers making pasta, but like with real sauce, just to mess with Shiro. Then, he remembers he bought salmon yesterday, so he decides to prepare that instead. Keith sets his phone to play Khalid’s American Teen album on Spotify, and leaves it on the dining table. He hums along to Cold Blooded while making the miso marinade. Now and then, he hears Shiro yelling, so his game must have been going well. Shiro never raised his voice when they were losing.

After about half an hour passes, Shiro comes to the kitchen. Winter by Khalid is playing, and the salmon has about two minutes left in the mini oven. The sound of the kitchen ventilation and music masks Shiro’s entrance, and Keith is focused on stir-frying the spinach, so he doesn’t hear Shiro until he talks.

“Y’know, Allura loves this song,” Shiro says, smiling. Keith looks up.

“She’ll be back soon,” he replies. “Can you microwave some rice?” Shiro nods and gets the rice out of the fridge. He scoops some into a microwavable bowl.

“Thanks,” Keith says. “It’s good to see you haven’t completely fallen apart while she’s not here.” Shiro laughs and puts the rice in the microwave.

“No, I’m just not as well-kept as I usually am because it’s break,” he corrects. Another Sad Love Song starts playing. The oven dings. Shiro hesitates, and then gets the oven mitts to remove the salmon. “You doing okay?” he asks Keith. Keith plates the spinach and gets the rice out of the microwave.

“I’m fine. Let’s eat.”

\---

Keith has a dream that night about playing Overwatch. The only reason he is alive is because Pidge has such good surrounding awareness as Moira, and Lance is hitting all his shots as Ana. Hunk is being pushed back as Roadhog by a Reaper, and Keith knows that Hunk is going to switch soon, even though he loves playing Roadhog. Lance is cussing and Shiro is eerily calm. Every time Keith dashes he misses. Lance tells him to get it together. Keith yells angrily at Lance to shut up in the mic, and right after, he hears a familiar laugh and arms wrap around his shoulder. They lose the game. Soft lips press against Keith’s cheek. He wakes up with tears in his eyes.

Keith doesn’t want to go back to college.

**Author's Note:**

> spoiler: Keith goes back to college in the next chapter


End file.
